A church's core beliefs are key reason to stay

Tuesday

Mar 25, 2008 at 2:10 AM

Jonathan Gurwitz ("Obama's record is bad enough," op-ed, March 21) asks why Barack Obama did not abandon his minister after the hateful and divisive rants by leaving his church and finding a spiritual home somewhere else. What is his excuse?

Jonathan Gurwitz ("Obama's record is bad enough," op-ed, March 21) asks why Barack Obama did not abandon his minister after the hateful and divisive rants by leaving his church and finding a spiritual home somewhere else. What is his excuse?

Gurwitz might ask why the millions of Catholics who make their way to church every Sunday did not abandon their church after the brutal revelations of centuries of physical and sexual abuse of little children whose perpetrators were protected by church administrators right up to modern times. What is their excuse?

He might also ask why millions of fundamentalist Christians still attend megachurches in the face of a string of fiery preachers who were found spending their spare hours with prostitutes in local motels. What is their excuse?

If church members have the right to hold on to the core beliefs of their chosen or family religion and stay in that community to repent and evolve, does not this same right extend to Barack Obama when reacting to the hate mongering of a single minister? Does he not have the same right to remain and seek change from within? Indeed, does he not have a responsibility to do so?

Carolyn Barnes

Centerville

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